Happy Monday!

I continue to feel great and am *so excited* about that. I'm still just a teeny bit stiff. But it's that good "I exercised and I'm sore" feeling. I've been waiting for that! I guess finally my body has just caught up to everything and I've figured out exactly how far I can push myself and still live to tell about it. It's such a difference from my recovery after the half. I was DEAD for several days. And just hurt like the dickens. But, I've run that distance (and then some) again twice. So maybe my body isn't protesting it like it did the first time. Progress. Saturday's miles were almost a half marathon and a 5k. Who on earth would have ever thought that I would run 16 miles. Ever. In a day. At one time. WOO HOO!!!

I did pilates this morning and that felt good. Lots of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g. Nice.

I read in the Galloway marathon book a lot about walk breaks. We have been utlizing that strategy with the walk/run intervals since the beginning of the training. I kind of thought it was more like a "oh I can only run this far and need a break" kind of thing. But there really is a physical reason to do this. According to the running guru, walk breaks vary the use of your muscles so they keep their 'bounce' as they conserve resources. By walking early on in the race, you avoid using up your resources early. Alternating the exertion level and the way you use your running muscles gives them a chance to recover before they accumulate fatigue. So it reduces the damage to the muscle and, in turn, leads to a quicker recovery after the long run. By alternating running and walking muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles. To receive maximum benefit from the walk break, you must start them early (even during the first mile) before you feel fatigue. If you wait until you feel the need for a walk break, you've already reduced your potential performance. Walk breaks "earn you a discount" early in the run from the pounding on legs and feet. He even says that serious marathoners have made drastic improvements in their time by taking walk breaks early and often. It's better to take a 1 minutes break every 5 minutes than a 5 minute break every 25 minutes. It leads to quicker and more effective recovery.

That's all probably more than you wanted to know....but it's my blog so I can write about whatever I want to! But the use of walk breaks was something that definitely helped me recover from Saturday's sixteen miler. Learning about the reason for the walk breaks is just more learning and education on training and running. And that's a piece of my marathon training pie. Which I am sharing with you, my faithful readers! I really thought this whole 'run a marathon thing' was just go out there and run 26.2 miles. Hardly. For something so simple, it sure has a lot of pieces to it.

Happy Monday everybody! Hope you have a good day!

Talk to me Mr. Right Brain!

I callibrated my new Nike iPod sensor on the treadmill this morning. The battery died on the old one. You don't replace the battery, or the whole kit, just the little shoe sensor thing. Easy enough. Except you have to recallibrate it. Hope I'm on target this time. It was a bit of a challenge with the first one.

I am thinking I'll do all of my running alone tomorrow so I need a pretty accurate way of marking my distance. Since I am usually running with Julie or George, I let them track distance on their Garmin. Anyway, I need to make sure how far I'm running, rather than just hitting the ol' trail... In case you forgot, I'm scheduled for 18 tomorrow!

A coworker loaned me some running books including "Marathon: You Can Do It!" by Jeff Galloway. He is considered a major running guru. There is some really good stuff in the book. I was reading last night about motivation and the whole 'mind game' of running. That's so true - a huge part of running is mental. I wanted to share some highlights from Chapter 7: The Source of Motivation.

The left brain = logic. This side of your brain is the center of logic. The left brain loves logic, details, facts, words. One of the main missions of the left brain is to steer you away from discomfort. Any form of stress or perceived stress will stimulate messages telling you to "slow down" or "stop". Since we rely on the left brain for logical guidance, we listen to these messages. We do have to pay attention to real dangers (like health things), but usually the left brain overreacts, warning us long before we are in real danger. Motivation training desensitizes us to such messages and the left brain's nagging.

The right brain = intuition. The creative and intuitive center is in the right side of the brain. Mr. Right Brain loves feelings, imagination, symbols. This side loves life and holds creative solutions to problems, challenges and obstacles. By doing things like walk breaks, mantras and motivations, and blood sugar/energy boosting (gels), you can cut down on stress, reducing the messages from the left brain.

Here's a neat test I found to see which side of the brain you use. Which way is the dancer spinning? If you can only see her spinning one direction, try this. I was definitely a left brainer here, but if I tried real hard (after seeing the 'answer') I could go back and make her spin the other way. Let me know what you saw her doing.

I am a *major* Left Brainer. This is great for Angie The Non-Runner, Obsessive Compulsive, Type A, Perfectionist, Crossword Puzzle Addict. This is a problemo for Angie Who Wants To Be A Runner, Who Got Chest Pains During Christmas One Year When She Tried To Be A Type B, Whose Spice Cabinet Is Alphabetized, Who Thinks Index Cards Are The Greatest Invention In the World, Who Thinks It's All Gotta' Be Perfect and Logical. So what does this have to do with running? When I run, I basically need to tell the left brain to put a lid on it. That's the side that is telling me "You need to quit. You can't go any farther. You are not a runner. Why are you doing this? This is crazy. Your legs hurt. You're thirsty. You're so tired. What were you thinking? Stop running right now." Mr. Left Brain needs to just nip it. Shut. Up. The right side is the one that needs to be speaking up. And make it loud. He needs to be saying "I'm a runner. I am strong. I can do this. I feel great. Daddy is with me. He is proud of me. I am in no pain. I will finish." Mr. Right Brain needs to be loud and clear tomorrow. I'm going to be paying real close attention to him.

Good luck to the Country Music Marathoners who are in Nashville for tomorrow's marathon!! Sending special speedy fast vibes to my coworker Kelly who is running in memory of her dad. I am hopeful the weather will hold out for them. Go Kelly Go!!!